Yet if this was reason enough for the failure of Egyptian writers to indulge in the kind of salacious detail that the Greeks and the Romans so relished, then there was also a broader cultural explanation.

And while it has been marketed as "salacious," aside from a few anecdotes about players hooking up with local girls (some not of legal age) and a slew of raunchy actions in the clubhouse, McCarthy left a lot out.

Late last month the venerable New York Times was in the cross hairs and, before that, campaign manager Rick Davis dubbed as "salacious" the media's vetting of Sarah Palin that so clearly hadn't been done by McCain himself.